parenting question

[flea]

Allowing your 5 year old to watch 2+ hours of TV after she gets home from all-day activities that involve new people and/or physical extertion: allowing a necessary brain- and body- rest, mindless vegging of the sort that many adults enjoy, or allowing child to get away with murder while justifying my own laziness about not making her do other stuff?

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I never restricted TV and my two grew up fine. That's anecdata, of course.

But vegging in exhaustion seems reasonable to me, and as you say, adults do it all the time.

[ste-noni.livejournal.com]

When Ellie goes t school all day, I have no problem letting her watch TV when we get home for a bit and while I'm getting Frisco to sleep it probably works out to 1.5-2 hours a day. I think having time to unwind is normal.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Um, all of the above? Which is to say, I totally let my kids do it in similar situations, AND feel guilty about my own laziness.

They're both playing so much soccer these days that I'm also letting them watch more TV, whereas in the winter (when we're stuck inside) I tend to be more restrictive with it.

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

Oh, the former, definitely.

I feel guilty about it too, but parents also need winding-down time at the end of the workday, and plonking Charlie in front of the TV means I can cook dinner in peace and become sane and rested enough to give him a bit of quality time later before bedtime.

[hecubot.livejournal.com]

I think Emmett's tv diet at that age was something like half hour in the morning and an hour and a half in the evening.

Kid's need to unwind too, and also have some entertainment. As long as they're physically active, and reading and engaging with people I don't think that's deleterious.

Also, with two kids under six and both parents working, you need some downtime yourself. I would not characterize you as lazy.

[burrell.livejournal.com]

I'm with forodwaith--it's perfectly fine once in a while and yet will inevitably set off the mommy guilt bombs. I've done it before, not often, but I've done it. And mostly not so often because the kids don't want to sit and watch tv for longer than an hour or so at a time.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Oh, did I mention the every day part? Seriously, Casper could watch TV for 10 hours in a row without being bored. (Dillo, no, he gets bored and plays outside.)